Ariz. contraception bill: The Nation's Katrina vanden Heuvel discusses an Arizona bill that would allow employers to refuse to cover contraception in their health plans for religious or moral reasons. Women who use birth control for non-contraceptive purposes would have to provide proof of their need for the medication. Although supporters of the bill say it is about religious freedom, vanden Heuvel says it's about workers' rights. She adds, "This is about women's right to control their access to health care, to control their own lives, to control their own employment future" (Schultz, "The Ed Show," MSNBC, 3/14).

Ohio Viagra bill: "I'm just as serious as the men policymakers across this nation who introduced bills to regulate a woman's reproductive health," says Ohio Sen. Nina Turner (D), whose bill would require men to take a cardiac stress test, visit a sex therapist and get a signed statement from their partner confirming their impotency before they could obtain erectile dysfunction drugs. MSNBC host Chris Jansing notes that more than 400 bills targeting women's reproductive health have been introduced so far this year (Jansing, "Jansing & Co.," MSNBC, 3/12).

Texas women's health cuts: Michelle Goldberg of the Daily Beast and Newsweekdiscusses cuts to women's health programs in Texas, including the state's decision to exclude certain providers from its Medicaid Women's Health Program because they also offer abortion care. Goldberg notes that the program does not cover abortion care to begin with and that the law does not directly affect Planned Parenthood's abortion clinics, which operate separately from its other women's health clinics in Texas. But the law will disrupt care for thousands of low-income women who receive preventive care at the clinics, many of which have closed as the result of Texas' budget cuts, she says (Mitchell, "Andrea Mitchell Reports," MSNBC, 3/12). Last week, Planned Parenthood President and CEO Cecile Richards spoke with Comedy Central's Jon Stewart about the Texas measures and other attacks on reproductive health, explaining the organization's role in women's preventive care (Stewart, "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart," Comedy Central, 3/8).

Clinton at Women in the World Summit: "Why extremists always focus on women remains a mystery to me," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tells an audience of global female leaders at the Daily Beast's Women in the World Summit. She adds, "They want to control women. They want to control how we dress, they want to control how we act, they even want to control the decisions we make about our own health and bodies." Clinton calls on the U.S. "to set an example for the entire world" and "reject efforts to marginalize any one of us" (Camia, "On Politics," USA Today, 2/12).